Staff Software Engineer

Western Union•Austin, TX

2d•$130,000 - $150,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Western Union is seeking a Staff Software Engineer to play a key technical team leadership role in building and scaling our modern API platform that powers integrations with external partners and internal channels worldwide. This role requires deep expertise in cloud‑native architecture, backend engineering, and DevOps practices, along with the ability to influence design decisions and mentor engineers across teams. You will work closely with Product, Architecture, Security, and Operations to deliver secure, scalable, and highly available APIs supporting Western Union’s global money movement ecosystem

Requirements

Bachelors in computer science or related fields with 8+ years of professional experience or master’s with 6+ years of experience. Equivalent work experience.
Proven expertise in Java and Spring Boot, with experience building and supporting production‑grade APIs.
Strong experience designing and delivering RESTful APIs, including API contracts, versioning, and backward compatibility.
Demonstrated ability to evaluate business and product requirements and translate them into scalable, resilient technical solutions.
Hands‑on experience working in an Agile development environment, including sprint planning, backlog refinement, and iterative delivery.
Strong experience partnering with Product Managers to shape solutions, clarify requirements, and prioritize work.
Solid experience with AWS cloud services and cloud‑native application design.
Experience implementing and leveraging caching frameworks to improve system performance and scalability.
Strong understanding of non‑functional requirements, including scalability, performance, reliability, security, and availability.
Hands‑on experience with Test‑Driven Development (TDD) and automated testing practices.
Proven experience leading technical design and code reviews and enforcing engineering best practices.
Ability to troubleshoot complex production issues and drive root-cause analysis.
Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to influence technical decisions.
Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Western Union will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.

Nice To Haves

Experience with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and modern DevOps practices.
Experience operating systems in high‑availability and high‑throughput environments.
Familiarity with API gateways, authentication, and authorization frameworks.
Experience defining or contributing to platform-level standards and reusable components.
Prior experience working on enterprise‑scale or integration platforms.

Responsibilities

Serve as a technical team leader and subject‑matter expert for the API platform, owning architecture and design decisions for complex systems and services.
Lead the design and implementation of scalable, resilient solutions, balancing short‑term delivery needs with long‑term platform sustainability.
Partner closely with Product, Architecture, Security, and Operations to translate business requirements into high‑quality technical solutions.
Drive engineering excellence by defining and enforcing best practices around system design, testing (including TDD), security, performance, and operational readiness.
Provide hands‑on guidance through design reviews, code reviews, and technical deep dives, raising overall code quality and consistency.
Act as a technical mentor to senior and mid‑level engineers, supporting growth in system thinking, ownership, and problem solving.
Influence platform direction by identifying opportunities to improve scalability, reliability, developer experience, and cost efficiency.
Serve as a key escalation point for complex production issues, contributing to root cause analysis and long-term corrective actions.
Collaborate across teams to ensure alignment with enterprise standards while enabling teams to deliver efficiently and independently.

Benefits

You will also have access to short-term incentives, multiple health insurance options, accident and life insurance, and access to best-in-class development platforms, to name a few (https://careers.westernunion.com/global-benefits/).
Paid Time Off
Medical, Dental and Life Insurance
Tuition Assistance Program
Student Loan Repayment (below manager level only)
Parental Leave
One day volunteer time off
$0 Money Transfer Fee Discount Code – Quarterly
Recognition Program “Game Changers”
Employee Discount Program
Global Adoption Assistance
Global Scholarship Awards Program
401K plan